What are my chances? Help appreciated :)

[xxwanderlustxx]

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Hello,

Thanks to those of you who are always so helpful. SDN is definitely one of my most frequented sites!

So, here is where I'm at...
- 3.65 GPA/3.4 sGPA
- 20AA/20TS/19PAT
- MI Resident
- Very active on campus: Pre-health org, Student government (2000+ hrs), Tutoring, Volunteering in hospitals (400+ hrs), Laboratory research (2000+ hours), other orgs (cultural and service).

The thing is...I have two big drawbacks that make me a bit nervous:
1) I'm a bit late in the app cycle? I took my DAT today and will be submitting my application this week!
2) I was a previous med school applicant. I thought with my combined love for science and community service that a medical career would be right for me. After exploring dentistry more and more, I realized that I enjoy this aspect of the health sciences a bit more. While shadowing over the year, I have gotten to know patients in the dental clinic. It was incredible to have them trust me to patients look (just look! Haha, I'm just volunteering) into one of the most vulnerable parts of them. I also volunteered in a dental and medical camp abroad and that really solidified my aspirations of being a dentist -- I enjoyed it waaaay more!

Woah, just realized I rambled on...anyway, I understand my applications has those two aforementioned limitations, however, I am very confident that dentistry is the right place for me.

Here is my list thus far of schools I'm planning on applying to:

West Coast:
University of California - SF

East Coast:
University of Maryland
University of North Carolina
West Virginia University
New York University
Rutgers School of Dental Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburg

Midwest:
Case Western Reserve University
Indiana University
Marquette University
Missouri School of Dentistry & Oral Health
Ohio State University
University of Detroit Mercy
University of Illinois in Chicago
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota

Top choice would be UofM (as it's close to home)...but I do feel like this list is a bit too ambitious ($$$-wise)

Any suggestions on schools to add/take out would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance 🙂

 

[RuffDay]

No need to mention that you were pre-med unless you applied to medical school already.

 

[ajj70]

Take off UCSF, very out of state interview rate, 9% last year, plus it's just really expensive to live there. I'd take out NYU for the same reason. I think your entire list, however is pretty good and while it gets expensive, your stats are pretty average but your EC's seem good. You didn't mention how many dental shadowing hours you have. If you applied to med schools or took the MCAT, that will be a negative. If you did neither, I would not include that information in your application at all. 15 schools with average stats (average for accepted students) is within the normal range and, do you want to do this again. Also, you are not applying late, you are fine that way. Get everything in now so when your DAT scores are verified the application is ready to go. Are your LOR's done and uploaded yet? Is your transcript ready to go?

 

[postpitadh]

i know a guy that talked about why he switched from pre-med to pre-dental in his last year of undergrad and he got accepted...

 

[postpitadh]

nothing wrong with mentioning pre-med as long as you're honest about why you switched!

 

[xxwanderlustxx]

Thank you so much for your reponses. I did take the MCAT and apply. I was waitlisted to two schools -- but it really was a blessing in disguise. Medical school may be the right route for many, but I found what I experienced and felt with dentistry was true...things just "clicked."

I have all my letters in. Transcript is sent. I have approx. 110 hrs of shadowing.
Since I was studying for the DAT I haven't had a chance to really work on my personal statement. I'm going to work on it all of today and hopefully submit it 🙂

Any other thoughts?

 

[xxwanderlustxx]

Should I add Nova?
Also, I was thinking of taking out Minnesota and Missouri

 

[TXftw]

Apply to midwestern in AZ, also take off North Carolina they only give interviews to 6% of OOS applicants.